The iconic Cheerios bee, BuzzBee, disappeared from cereal boxes earlier this month to promote the #BringBackTheBees giveaway. General Mills said in a news release that it aimed to highlight the alarming rate at which bee populations are declining.

"Pollinators are critical to our environment," the news release said. "More than two-thirds of the crops used to feed people, accounting for 90 percent of the world's nutrition, are pollinated by bees. With deteriorating colony health, pollinators everywhere have been disappearing by the millions."

General Mills is giving away the seeds, in partnership with Veseys Seeds, on the Cheerios website. The company asked people to plant the seeds in "a bee-friendly habitat in your yard."

"As a General Mills cereal built around nutrition, helping pollinators get the key nutrition they need through fun, family-friendly activities like planting wildflowers is a natural fit," Cheerios marketing director Susanne Prucha said.

The giveaway will run through spring, according to a General Mills spokesperson.